Eminent Exponents of Premillennialism

The Doctrine
of the Lord Jesus Christ's return prior to His thousand-year Milliennial
Reign is not only scriptural but an ancient belief that was held
by the overwhelming majority of notables of Church History. Although
their views on this important doctrine varied, they nevertheless
believed Jesus Christ would return BEFORE the thousand-year reign
of Christ. Premillennialism is in conflict with Roman Catholic eschatology.
Some enemies of this doctrine imply that it is a recent invention.
Click
here for a list of names (1 MB pdf file) who believed
in Premillennialism throughout church history.

Found in
the January 1914 issue of "The Christian Workers Magazine" of the Moody
Bible Institute of Chicago

Click here for a list of resources to explain this important doctrine found
in Scripture

By "Premillennialism" is
meant the teaching that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will come again
to this earth personally and visibly, and that this coming will take place
prior to that period of a thousand years of which the Scriptures speak, when
peace and righteousness shall prevail upon the earth. In other words, it
is the coming of our Lord that shall introduce this period and make it a
possibility. As to the details of the event opinions differ among Godly students
of the Bible, but in broad outline the foregoing is a sufficient definition
for our present purpose.

In the language of Dr. James H.
Brookes, one of the most distinguished Bible teachers our country has known, "The
premillennial advent was the common heritage of both Jewish and Gentile Christians,
and passed from the Jewish Christian to the Gentile Christian church precisely
in the way the gospel passed. It was as fragrant at Antioch as at Jerusalem,
at Rome as at Ephesus. History has no consensus more unanimous for any doctrine
than is the consensus of the apostolic Fathers for the premillennial advent
of Christ."

Passing
from the apostolic period to that of the early Christian fathers, we have a
witness, equally eminent, in Dr. H. Grattan Guinness, of England, who says: "It
cannot be denied that for three centuries the church held the doctrine of the
premillennial coming of Christ. I think I have gone through all the writings
of the Fathers for three centuries pretty carefully, and I do not know of an
exception unless it be Origin. It was the faith of
Barnabas, Polycarp, Clement, Ignatius, Papius, Tertullian, Justin Martyr, Nepos,
Irenaeus, Victorinus, Methodius, Lactantius, Hermas and many others-all were
at one."

To the above might be added the
name of Dr. Bengel, author of Gnomon Novi Testamenti, who says, "The
Early Church fully believed that it (i. e., the Second Coming) would precede,
or usher in, the thousand years of His reign with His saints. A general change
of view came in after the establishment of Christianity under Constantine,
and when corruption in doctrine and practice had begun."

To come to modern times, it is to
be noted that many divines of the Westminster Assembly were premillennialists,
and that according to Charles A. Briggs, D. D., in the new Schaff-Herzog
Encyclopedia, "In America
premillennialism has appeared in three different camps: Christian scholars,
the Adventists, and Evangelists."

We have been asked by several to publish
a list of eminent exponents of premillennialism, living or dead, of different
nations, with their denomination and professional connections. We undertook
the task with pleasure, feeling that it would redound to the glory of God in
the strengthening of the faith of some and the quickening of their hope in
the Second Coming. On going into the matter, however, we found a much greater
task than we had expected, the difficulty being not to discover the exponents
but to reduce their number to a workable list. We began by eliminating the
early Christian fathers, of whom there were many. Then we were obliged to reduce
the number in the Reformation Period. Coming to the Missionary Era of the last
century, so many witnesses were found that it was difficult to make a selection.
The same may be said of the modern era of Evangelism, for practically all the
evangelists of the United States and Great Britain are premillennialists.
In taking a census of pastors at present in the active ministry, we were again
embarrassed by the number of whom we heard. Finally it became necessary to
entirely eliminate the long list of distinguished Christian laymen who have
borne more or less notable witness to the premillennial coming of Christ. The
result is the following names, with few exceptions comparatively modern, and
limited almost entirely to theologians, commentators, authors, educators and
pastors, but sufficiently representative for the purpose.

Click
here for
a list of names (1 MB pdf file) from church history who believed in Premillennialism